Public Involvement for Power Uprates

The NRC considers public involvement in our activities to be a cornerstone of strong, fair regulation of the nuclear industry. The public is invited to comment on proposed regulations and various other documents in addition to observing or participating in certain workshops and meetings. See our Public Involvement pages for more information.

Opportunities for public involvement in the power uprate arena exist in many forms. Licensees usually request pre-application meetings with the NRC staff to discuss their plans for power uprate applications. The staff issues meeting notices for these meetings to provide the public with an opportunity to attend. Portions of meetings during which proprietary information is presented will be closed to the public. Once an application is received, the NRC issues notices in the Federal Register to notify the public that the NRC is considering the application. This notice also provides 30 days for interested members of the public to submit comments related to the application and 60 days for interested members of the public to request hearings on the application. For some power uprate applications, the NRC staff will conduct briefings to the Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards (ACRS) on the results of the staff's review of the applications. These briefings are also open to the public and meeting notices for these briefings are issued to provide the public with an opportunity to attend. ACRS meeting schedules are also included on the ACRS Web site. Portions of these meetings during which proprietary information is presented will be closed to the public. For some power uprates, the NRC staff prepares environmental assessements that consider environmental issues related to the power uprates. For each extended power uprate, the NRC staff issues a draft environmental assessment and provides 30 days for the public to submit comments on the draft environmental assessment. The NRC staff considers and addresses all comments received on the draft environmental assessment before finalizing it.